Passage Resources Hebrew/Greek Your Content
Previous Next
Add parallel Print Page Options Listen to 2 Kings 7-8
Close NASB

2 Kings 7-8
New American Standard Bible

Elisha Promises Food

7 Then Elisha said, “Listen to the word of the Lord; this is what the Lord says: ‘(A)About this time tomorrow a [a]measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’” 2 (B)The royal officer on whose hand the king was leaning responded to the man of God and said, “(C)Even if the Lord were to make [b]windows in heaven, could this thing happen?” Then he said, “Behold, you are going to see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat [c]any of it.”

Four Men with Leprosy Report Arameans’ Flight

3 Now there were four (D)leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ then the famine is in the city and we will die there; but if we sit here, we will also die. Now then come, and let’s go over to (E)the camp of the Arameans. If they spare us, we will live; and if they kill us, then we will die.” 5 So they got up at twilight to go to the camp of the Arameans; when they came to the outskirts of the camp of the Arameans, behold, there was no one there. 6 For (F)the Lord had made the army of the Arameans hear a sound of chariots, a sound of horses, that is, the sound of a great army; and they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired (G)the kings of the Hittites and (H)the kings of the Egyptians against us, to [d]attack us!” 7 So they (I)got up and fled at twilight, and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys—indeed the camp itself, just as it was; and they fled for their lives. 8 When these men with leprosy came to the outskirts of the camp, they entered one tent and ate and drank, and (J)carried from there silver, gold, and clothes, and they went and hid them; then they returned and entered another tent, and carried valuables from there also, and went and hid them.

9 Then they said to one another, “We are not doing the right thing. This day is a day of good news, but we are keeping silent about it; if we wait until the morning light, punishment will [e]overtake us. Now then come, let’s go and inform the king’s household.” 10 So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city, and told them, saying, “We came to the camp of the Arameans, and behold, there was no one there, nor a human voice; only the horses tied and the donkeys tied, and the tents just as they were.” 11 And the gatekeepers called and announced it inside the king’s house. 12 Then the king got up in the night and said to his servants, “I will now tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know that (K)we are hungry; so they have left the camp (L)to hide themselves in the field, saying, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and get into the city.’” 13 One of his servants responded and said, “Please, have some men take five of the horses that remain, which are left [f]in the city. Behold, they will be in any case like all the multitude of Israel who are left in it; behold, they will be like all the multitude of Israel who have already perished, so let us send them and see.” 14 Therefore they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the army of the Arameans, saying, “Go and see.”

The Promise Fulfilled

15 They went after them to the Jordan, and behold, all the way was full of clothes and equipment which the Arameans had thrown away when they fled in a hurry. Then the messengers returned and informed the king.

16 So the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. Then a [g]measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two [h]measures of barley for a shekel, (M)in accordance with the word of the Lord. 17 Now the king appointed (N)the royal officer on whose hand he leaned [i]to be in charge of the gate; but the people trampled on him at the gate, and he died, just as the man of God had said, (O)who spoke when the king came down to him. 18 So it happened just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “(P)Two [j]measures of barley for a shekel and a [k]measure of fine flour for a shekel, will be sold about this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria.” 19 At that time the royal officer had responded to the man of God and said, “Now even if (Q)the Lord were to make windows in heaven, could such a thing as this happen?” And he had said, “Behold, you are going to see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat [l]any of it.” 20 And this is what happened to him, for the people trampled on him at the gate and he died.

Jehoram Restores the Shunammite’s Land

8 Now (R)Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go [m]with your household, and live wherever you can live; for the (S)Lord has called for a famine, and (T)it will indeed come on the land for seven years.” 2 So the woman arose and acted in accordance with the word of the man of God: she went with her household and resided in the land of the Philistines for seven years. 3 Then at the end of seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went to [n]appeal to the king for her house and for her field. 4 Now the king was speaking with (U)Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Please report to me all the great things that Elisha has done.” 5 And as he was reporting to the king (V)how he had restored to life the one who was dead, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life [o]appealed to the king for her house and for her field. And Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.” 6 When the king asked the woman, she told everything to him. So the king appointed an officer for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land even until now.”

Elisha Predicts Evil from Hazael

7 Then Elisha came to (W)Damascus. Now (X)Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, was sick, and it was told to him, saying, “(Y)The man of God has come here.” 8 And the king said to (Z)Hazael, “(AA)Take a gift in your hand and go to meet the man of God, and (AB)inquire of the Lord by him, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” 9 So Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand, even every kind of good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ loads; and he came and stood before him and said, “(AC)Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’” 10 Then Elisha said to him, “(AD)Go, say to him, ‘You will certainly recover’; but the (AE)Lord has shown me that he will certainly die.” 11 And he [p]stared steadily at him (AF)until Hazael was embarrassed, and then (AG)the man of God wept. 12 And Hazael said, “Why is my lord weeping?” And he [q]answered, “Because (AH)I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: you will set their fortified cities on fire, you will kill their young men with the sword, their little ones you (AI)will smash to pieces, and you will rip up their pregnant women.” 13 Then Hazael said, “But what is your servant—(AJ)a lowly dog—that he could do this great thing?” And Elisha [r]answered, “(AK)The Lord has shown me that you will be king over Aram.” 14 So he left Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he [s]answered, “He told me that (AL)you would certainly recover.” 15 But on the following day, he took the [t]cover and dipped it in water, and spread it over his face, (AM)so that he died. And Hazael became king in his place.

Another Jehoram Reigns in Judah

16 Now in the fifth year of (AN)Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king. 17 He was (AO)thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. 18 He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for (AP)Ahab’s daughter was his wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. 19 However, the Lord did not want to destroy Judah, for the sake of David His servant, (AQ)since He had [u]promised him to give him a [v]lamp through his sons always.

20 In his days (AR)Edom broke away from the [w]rule of Judah, and appointed a king over themselves. 21 Then Joram crossed over to Zair, and all his chariots with him. And he got up at night and struck the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots; (AS)but [x]his army fled to their tents. 22 (AT)So Edom has broken away from [y]Judah to this day. Then (AU)Libnah broke away at the same time. 23 Now the rest of the acts of Joram and everything that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

Ahaziah Succeeds Jehoram in Judah

24 So Joram [z]lay down with his fathers and (AV)was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and his son (AW)Ahaziah became king in his place.

25 (AX)In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. 26 (AY)Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. 27 (AZ)He walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab, because he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab.

28 Then he went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against (BA)Hazael king of Aram at (BB)Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans [aa]wounded Joram. 29 So (BC)King Joram returned to have himself healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Arameans had [ab]inflicted on him at (BD)Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Then (BE)Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel because he was sick.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 7:1 Heb seah
  2. 2 Kings 7:2 Or hatches
  3. 2 Kings 7:2 Lit from there
  4. 2 Kings 7:6 Lit come against
  5. 2 Kings 7:9 Lit find
  6. 2 Kings 7:13 Lit in it
  7. 2 Kings 7:16 Heb seah
  8. 2 Kings 7:16 Heb seah
  9. 2 Kings 7:17 Lit over the gate
  10. 2 Kings 7:18 Heb seahs
  11. 2 Kings 7:18 Heb seahs
  12. 2 Kings 7:19 Lit from there
  13. 2 Kings 8:1 Lit you and your
  14. 2 Kings 8:3 Lit cry out
  15. 2 Kings 8:5 Lit cried out
  16. 2 Kings 8:11 Lit made his face stand fast and he set
  17. 2 Kings 8:12 Lit said
  18. 2 Kings 8:13 Lit said
  19. 2 Kings 8:14 Lit said
  20. 2 Kings 8:15 I.e., item of woven material
  21. 2 Kings 8:19 Lit said to him
  22. 2 Kings 8:19 I.e., descendant on the throne
  23. 2 Kings 8:20 Lit hand
  24. 2 Kings 8:21 Lit the people
  25. 2 Kings 8:22 Lit under the hand of
  26. 2 Kings 8:24 I.e., died
  27. 2 Kings 8:28 Lit struck
  28. 2 Kings 8:29 Lit struck
Listen to 2 Kings 7-8
Close NIV

2 Kings 7-8
New International Version

7 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah[a] of the finest flour will sell for a shekel[b] and two seahs[c] of barley for a shekel(A) at the gate of Samaria.”

2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning(B) said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates(C) of the heavens, could this happen?”

“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat(D) any of it!”

The Siege Lifted

3 Now there were four men with leprosy[d](E) at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, 6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound(F) of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired(G) the Hittite(H) and Egyptian kings to attack us!” 7 So they got up and fled(I) in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

8 The men who had leprosy(J) reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

9 Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”

10 So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” 11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

12 The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide(K) in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’”

13 One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here—yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”

14 So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” 15 They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight.(L) So the messengers returned and reported to the king. 16 Then the people went out and plundered(M) the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel,(N) as the Lord had said.

17 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died,(O) just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. 18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”

19 The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates(P) of the heavens, could this happen?” The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!” 20 And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.

The Shunammite’s Land Restored

8 Now Elisha had said to the woman(Q) whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine(R) in the land that will last seven years.”(S) 2 The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

3 At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land. 4 The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” 5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored(T) the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.

Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” 6 The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.

Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

Hazael Murders Ben-Hadad

7 Elisha went to Damascus,(U) and Ben-Hadad(V) king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, “The man of God has come all the way up here,” 8 he said to Hazael,(W) “Take a gift(X) with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult(Y) the Lord through him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”

9 Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’”

10 Elisha answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’(Z) Nevertheless,[e] the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die.” 11 He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed.(AA) Then the man of God began to weep.(AB)

12 “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael.

“Because I know the harm(AC) you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash(AD) their little children(AE) to the ground, and rip open(AF) their pregnant women.”

13 Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog,(AG) accomplish such a feat?”

“The Lord has shown me that you will become king(AH) of Aram,” answered Elisha.

14 Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, “What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael replied, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” 15 But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died.(AI) Then Hazael succeeded him as king.

Jehoram King of Judah(AJ)

16 In the fifth year of Joram(AK) son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram(AL) son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. 17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. 18 He followed the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter(AM) of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. 19 Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy(AN) Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp(AO) for David and his descendants forever.

20 In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king.(AP) 21 So Jehoram[f] went to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night; his army, however, fled back home. 22 To this day Edom has been in rebellion(AQ) against Judah. Libnah(AR) revolted at the same time.

23 As for the other events of Jehoram’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 24 Jehoram rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.

Ahaziah King of Judah(AS)

25 In the twelfth(AT) year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. 26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah,(AU) a granddaughter of Omri(AV) king of Israel. 27 He followed the ways of the house of Ahab(AW) and did evil(AX) in the eyes of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.

28 Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead.(AY) The Arameans wounded Joram; 29 so King Joram returned to Jezreel(AZ) to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth[g] in his battle with Hazael(BA) king of Aram.

Then Ahaziah(BB) son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 7:1 That is, probably about 12 pounds or about 5.5 kilograms of flour; also in verses 16 and 18
  2. 2 Kings 7:1 That is, about 2/5 ounce or about 12 grams; also in verses 16 and 18
  3. 2 Kings 7:1 That is, probably about 20 pounds or about 9 kilograms of barley; also in verses 16 and 18
  4. 2 Kings 7:3 The Hebrew for leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin; also in verse 8.
  5. 2 Kings 8:10 The Hebrew may also be read Go and say, ‘You will certainly not recover,’ for.
  6. 2 Kings 8:21 Hebrew Joram, a variant of Jehoram; also in verses 23 and 24
  7. 2 Kings 8:29 Hebrew Ramah, a variant of Ramoth
Next
2 Kings 6
2 Kings 9
Next
dropdown
New American Standard Bible (NASB)

New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

New American Standard Bible is made available by The Lockman Foundation
New International Version (NIV)

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.

July Summer Surge

More on the NIV